John Street, Columbus Boulevard in Taunton made public ways to allow for infrastructure improvements

A series of infrastructure improvements can move forward after the City Council moved last week to accept a pair of private streets as public ways.

John Street, a small, gravelly street running between Purchase Street and Hong Kong City restaurant, and Columbus Boulevard, which intersects with Linden Street and heads to a dead end, are now public ways in Taunton.

A series of infrastructure improvements can move forward after the City Council moved last week to accept a pair of private streets as public ways.

John Street, a small, gravelly street running between Purchase Street and Hong Kong City restaurant, and Columbus Boulevard, which intersects with Linden Street and heads to a dead end, are now public ways in Taunton.

The John Street decision will allow the city to improve sewer infrastructure in the area, City Engineer Mark Slusarz said.

“There are some issues with a sewer line that runs behind homes, in the backyards,” Slusarz said. “We want to relocate it to John Street.”

By accepting John Street as a public way, the city can qualify for state funding for the project.

Nearby Broadway resident Nancy Chaves told the council that she was not opposed to making John Street a public way. The sewer line, she said, backed up into her basement and caused $6,000 worth of damage.

“I spent nine hours cleaning the city’s sewage out of my basement and got no compensation…” she said. “Something definitely needs to get done.”

The council, at Councilor Deborah Carr’s suggestion, referred Chaves’ input to the city Law Department.

The council also approved a request to take the paved portion of Columbus Boulevard as a public way. That will allow the DPW to make water infrastructure improvements in the area, Slusarz said.

Ada Violette, who has lived on Columbus Boulevard for 86 years, said she’s happy to see it become a public way. Because the private way wasn’t plowed by the city, she often woke up at 4 a.m. as a child to help her father shovel out during the winter.

“We had to wait until the Second World War to get mail,” she added.

Now, potholes are a major problem on the road.

“It’s about time you people did something about my street,” she told the council.